4.22.2006

The Liberty Resource Center

I promised this; so here it is. This is what I have been working on for the past four months. The explanation is below; however, I will state right now that I did not write it, instead it was written before I came onto the project. For more info, visit the project forums. If you would like to check out the website so far, click here.

At the moment, the Liberty Resource Center is just an idea. It is an idea which occurred to several people at about the same time. We were all one kind of conservative, or libertarian, or another. We were all people who were interested in the “battle of ideas”. None of us were afraid of reading a book, or two, or three.

# We all noticed that, Although there are many splendid conservative and libertarian forums, some of which keep collections of useful information;# And while there are a number of websites which exist specifically for making available the great conservative and libertarian classics;# And while a number of websites exist where conservative and libertarian writers post brilliant columns commenting on current events;# And although there are hundreds of websites with information refuting liberal/Left viewpoints on the war in Iraq, Cuba, taxation, gun control, women under Islam, and a thousand other topics and issues …

There was no single place that someone who wanted to find out what conservatives or libertarians had to say about an issue or a topic, could find all the links to the hundreds of existing websites which may hold the information he or she sought.

So we decided to make one.

As we discussed it among ourselves, we realized that such a central site would also be a logical place to fill in the gaps that we might discover while cataloguing all the existing conservative and libertarian sites.

Features

If no one had written a good essay on, say, Depleted Uranium and its use by American forces, we could do so. If there was an interesting debate to be had among conservatives on the ideas of Thomas Kuhn, we could host it. If no one had critically reviewed, from an anti-Leftist stance, a popular university sociology textbook, we could do so. If the different kinds of Objectivist now existing were causing confusion to those investigating the ideas of Ayn Rand, one of us could write an essay summarizing their beliefs and explaining their differences. If a conservative, or liberal, or for that matter any, popular book lacked a comprehensive book review, we could provide it.

We also realized that we could provide a kind of “tour of the right”. We would not only list the titles and addresses and subscription terms (and URLs if available) of every conservative and libertarian periodical that we could find, but we would also provide a brief description of each one.

We would do the same for the major conservative and libertarian organizations: for those wondering what the differences are between the Project for the New American Century, and the Foundation for Democracy, we would explain them. Naturally, we would provide annotated links to all major conservative and libertarian web sites, and all of the most interesting blogs, and the same for on-line Forums.

We would provide extensively annotated reading lists of the great political classics, not only those from the Right, but the major books of the Left. Other reading lists would cover specific topics.

We would provide a Question-and-Answer section, for those who did not find their researches satisfied by what we had already provided.

These are just some of the features which we have been discussing for our site. Others exist, too many to enumerate here.

Standards

Finally: we are committed to the highest standards of argumentation and evidence. Although we will not, obviously, be able to vouch for the entire contents of every website whose URL we cite, everything we include on our site written or endorsed by us must meet approved scholarly standards. We will not lie about, or distort, the arguments of our political adversaries. We will not overlook evidence, or ignore possibly telling points made by the people to which we are politically opposed. Our project may even include some liberal Devil’s Advocates to ensure that we are not tempted to cut corners in our argumentation. (To cite the Italian Marxist theoretician Gramsci, in physical warfare you avoid your enemy’s strong points, and focus your attack on his weak points. But in intellectual warfare you must do just the opposite.)

International Scope

And, just to prove that we are not afflicted with paucity of ambition, we would have an international scope. We would aim to do this for the whole world, not just the USA or the “Anglosphere”, and not just in English.

Who We Are

Now who are the madmen who have such o’er-reaching ambitions? And why do we think that there is any realistic chance of fulfilling such expansive goals?

So far, “we” are about sixty people. Some of us are retired military and retired professors. Others are in the full vigour of their middle years, with responsible jobs. Some of us are still too young to vote (but watch out! These kids are very bright!) We tend to be top-heavy with Web-related technical talent. (Although our website will provide feedback on political questions, and not technical ones, we could, from among us, answer your questions about the best way to implement a B*Tree in C++, or the use of a particular field in a TCP/IP datagram.)

Most of us are Americans – for the moment. But we have several active collaborators from the UK, and others from Canada, Australia, and Israel. We are mainly English-speaking – and that is the language in which we are discussing the project – but we have one Iraqi among us, with Arabic language capacity, and we have high hopes for Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Farsi, and Turkish speakers within the medium-term future, as we begin including material in those languages, and others, on our site.

Join Us

But, to come anywhere near fulfilling our ambitions, we need many more contributors. The kind of people who would likely be most happy working with us are those who are committed to reasoned discussion as the method of advancing their political beliefs. Racists, Jew-baiters, Gay-haters, those who are nostalgic for the time when women knew their place, and anyone whose beliefs are derived via direct instruction from the supernatural – would not be happy in our company. We shall not hesitate to examine the different conservative and libertarian views on controversial questions – from race and IQ to gay marriage to Intelligent Design – to the Israel/Palestine dispute – but always with the method of reasoned discussion.

We have no collective view – we have many different views, all of them broadly within the conservative and libertarian camps. You might call us the democratic Right, although some would contest whether the undemocratic Right should be part of the Right at all. (This question too, we shall look at.)

If you think you might be interested in working with us, or just want to be kept informed of the progress of our labors, send an email to:

Doug.Editor@Googlemail.comGoggalor88@gmail.com

or visit the site athttp://www.libertyresource.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please, if you are at all interested, we need helpers. Whether or not you have experience building websites, or you have an essay you would like publish, or you would like to review websites or even books, we need all the help we can get.

We have weekly meetings via Skype on Sundays at 10am Pacific time. If you are interested, email me, or better, contact me via Skype (please by text message), my name is Goggalor.

If anything, please check out the website and give a review through my comment system here on my blog. This site is for every-one who rejects the idea of Collectivism, even moderates and left-leaning people who do not want to see the idea of Socialism or Communism come to be. The website stresses the importance of self-reliance, and above all, liberty. It is still in it's beta testing period, version 0.3. We do not have quite the content we hope for yet, and that is why we need you to submit it at the forum (see link at top). Everything on there is subject to change, our old motto, which used to be "Everything Conservative" will be replaced. We decided that this site is not only for conservatives, which will be automatically reject by those who do not have the same definition of that position around the world. Also, we are trying to broaden our spectrum of interest and our audience.

4.08.2006

Political Decay

As of today, we see our two once-great political parties starting to crumble. The Democratic Party has made a considerable leap leftwards after the re-election of President Bush. The Republican Party has become severed from their grassroots and their heritage of small government, anti-deficit spending, and their near free market values.

First, we shall talk about the Democrats however. This party has, unlike the Republican party, become closer to the grassroots, but not to the moderates, whom they seem to shun. People like Joe Lieberman who are best described as middle-leftists, are being shunned by the "Progressives" that overrun blogs like the DailyKos day in and day out. They have shunned their firm base of industrial and blue-collar workers, instead catering to the extremist ends of their party; the same people who don't see the second amendment, the same people who see privacy under the fourth and fourteenth amendment, but don't see property. The same people who look into the past and see our forefathers, not for the great good they did the world by birthing a true free nation, but the slaves they had and the indians they killed. Certainly we should not look into the past and curse people who lived in such a society that allowed for slaves, although that might be a grievance for the past we shall hold for as long as our country survives.

Any person, no matter who they are, who thinks that we need universal "free" healthcare is either oblivious, ignorant, stupid, or are purposefully trying to seem caring to their constituents. Look at Canada, look at Britain, look at those failures. People are dying in line for medical care, lines that normally take one year. Is this a success? No. These are the same people who see raising the minimum wage as a good thing to do, even though it causes inflation which reverses any benefit a worker would recieve from an increase in minimum wage. These are the same people who see only social freedom, but economic freedom be damned. These are the people who then go out and say that they protect our freedoms, our liberties, our rights. As long as those rights don't hinder their plans. The Democratic party is catering to these people; this is not a majority, this is a fringe group. And yet, because there is no major middle group, people are pretty much stuck in this now-leftist party.

The Republican Party was one of great, if not monumental, achievements; a history of anti-slavery of limited Government. And yet, in the past 15 years, we see a large growth of Neo-Conservatives and Fundamentalists who are now a majority in the Republican base. The Republican base is moving away from it's once near-libertarian values and into the values of Christianity. However, it is still the party of real Republicans, but the republicans who do make office, are taskless. They have had both houses, and yet; we still don't have less government, less regulations. Where Republicans once had Barry Goldwater, they now have idle hands. The Republican party, in my opinion, is still closer to the center than the Democratic party is, but it is eroding. It still has a chance to take up it's history once again, but I am not so sure.

It is time for the Libertarian Party to step up to the plate, with so many people who like our Capitalist heritage and enjoy our freedoms both social and economic, it is time for the party who can grant both of those freedoms and protect those rights to stand up. As of now, the Libertarian Party is a little bit too extreme to be able to garner moderate votes, however; with America's gradual shift leftwards, I think that the Libertarian party can go in, and gradually shift the country back to the ideals of our forefathers. If the Libertarians are never willing to take small steps, than we will keep sliding into Socialist control; we cannot let this happen.

It's time to be better than a two-party system, it is time for the Libertarian party to take the ropes and wean the people off of the Welfare that in many ways oppresses them and makes them reliant on Big government.

I wish I could be a little bit more eloquent, but it is a weekend, so that is that. I hope you get the picture. Please leave comments if you disagree, agree, or just plain hate my guts.